Rogelio Valdés is a challenge!
On the one hand, he was incredibly fast, a great defender, and had a fantastic eye for the strike zone. He was very well respected, and was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. On the other, in these projections he hit under .230 in 10 of his 15 seasons. This is rough even for the deadball era.
All those positives remain, however: he should be on the leaderboards in walks a few years, and could lead the league in steals a few times as well. That speed helped generate a few more doubles and triples than might otherwise be expected from a hitter with as little power as Valdés had. Perhaps surprisingly for a player with as good an eye for the strike zone as he had, Valdés struck out quite often, even approaching leading the league early in his career.
It’s a little bit of an odd career: Valdés emerges essentially as a full time player in his late teens and is out of the game by his early 20’s. Honestly, it’s an arc that would support a notion that his birthdate is off by a few years, centering his best seasons around 27 instead of 24.
His defense really was spectacular, both at SS, where he spent the first half of his career, and LF, where he spent the second. He had great range at both spots, and a well above average arm. He filled in adequately elsewhere as well, seeing the most time at 2B and CF, but playing all IF and OF spots other than C at some point in his career.
We’ve filled in seasons for Valdés in 1912 and 1914, but otherwise have respected his historical record.
I end up not really knowing what to do with Valdés. Some other MLE’s have him hitting for significant (for the era) power, which I don’t think is a thing. But beyond that … a 20 point jump in batting average would make him a solid star, and is certainly something I could get behind. A very slight drop in walk rate and/or batting average would have him out of the league, speed and fielding notwithstanding.
So we’ll go with this, with the caveat that I would not be surprised at, nor be resistant to, an across the board increase in his hit rate, resulting in a significantly stronger projection.
| Name | Rogelio Valdés |
| ID / Status | valdes049rog / Draft |
| Pos | OF |
| DOB / i9s Career | 1882 / 1901 - 1915 |
| Birthplace | Havana, Cuba (Cuba) |
| Height / Weight | 5'11" / |
| B / T | R / R |
Batting Projections
| Year | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 1901 | 455 | 106 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 37 | 58 | 31 | 7 | 0.223 | 0.291 | 0.295 | 0.585 |
| 1902 | 462 | 91 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 30 | 59 | 32 | 4 | 0.197 | 0.246 | 0.236 | 0.482 |
| 1903 | 566 | 134 | 22 | 7 | 0 | 59 | 73 | 56 | 12 | 0.237 | 0.309 | 0.300 | 0.609 |
| 1904 | 619 | 159 | 27 | 10 | 2 | 61 | 99 | 67 | 8 | 0.257 | 0.324 | 0.342 | 0.666 |
| 1905 | 573 | 126 | 23 | 6 | 1 | 60 | 69 | 47 | 10 | 0.220 | 0.294 | 0.286 | 0.580 |
| 1906 | 591 | 136 | 22 | 7 | 1 | 85 | 75 | 55 | 12 | 0.230 | 0.327 | 0.296 | 0.623 |
| 1907 | 554 | 120 | 16 | 8 | 2 | 101 | 81 | 60 | 13 | 0.217 | 0.337 | 0.285 | 0.623 |
| 1908 | 447 | 89 | 17 | 6 | 0 | 60 | 54 | 35 | 8 | 0.199 | 0.294 | 0.264 | 0.558 |
| 1909 | 383 | 71 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 47 | 43 | 34 | 6 | 0.185 | 0.274 | 0.256 | 0.530 |
| 1910 | 467 | 98 | 18 | 8 | 1 | 65 | 62 | 24 | 7 | 0.210 | 0.306 | 0.289 | 0.595 |
| 1911 | 457 | 102 | 21 | 9 | 2 | 80 | 69 | 52 | 9 | 0.223 | 0.339 | 0.322 | 0.661 |
| 1912 | 420 | 100 | 15 | 4 | 1 | 53 | 54 | 24 | 8 | 0.238 | 0.323 | 0.300 | 0.623 |
| 1913 | 373 | 98 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 68 | 55 | 26 | 8 | 0.263 | 0.376 | 0.343 | 0.720 |
| 1914 | 378 | 78 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 30 | 58 | 16 | 4 | 0.206 | 0.265 | 0.249 | 0.513 |
| 1915 | 271 | 46 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 41 | 7 | 4 | 0.170 | 0.227 | 0.192 | 0.419 |